What could go through Trent Reznor’s head right now? AJ Maddah, a very powerful Australian concert promoter, slammed him on Twitter on Friday, claiming that the Nine Inch Nails frontman turned down the 2014 Soundwave music festival because he wanted to play to a more ‘sophisticated fanbase’:
‘it feels sad that he no longer wants “goths & people in black” & feels the need to find a “more sophisticated audience” tweeted AJ.
And since people didn’t believe him: ‘Dude, those are not my words. Trent told his agent he wants to find a more “sophisticated fanbase”.
And even explaining with irony to a fan: ‘Sorry Sarah. Sadly Trent wants to be mainstream now and reach Justin Timberlake’s audience : (‘
This last one sounds like a joke of course, but feels coming from someone who got badly rejected! The annual Soundwave festival was announced a night before with bands like Green Day, Avenged Sevenfold, Stone Temple Pilots, Placebo, Alice in Chains, and people expected NIN to figure in the line up as earlier reports had declared that organizers were ‘close to securing Nine Inch Nails’… so what happened? NIN played the big festival in 2009, they have an upcoming album ‘Hesitation Marks’ set to be released on September 3rd, so why would they want to avoid playing a major Australian festival which focuses on rock, metal and punk? Metallica, Linkin Park, Blink-182 are the headliners this year whereas it was System of a Down and Slipknot in 2012, and Iron Maiden and Queens of the Stone Age in 2011… just big names.
But may be Trent Reznor doesn’t want to have anything to do with the big mess that Stone Temple Pilots have become – and I am not even talking about fake punk Green Day – may be he doesn’t want to play the big festival game, or may be NIN are a bit too much ‘up their own arse’ as AJ put it on Twitter?
Their last song ‘Everything’ is strangely poppy-sounding for the industrial band, a little Cure, a little Foo Fighter, a little Strokes, and very light and upbeat for the guy who wrote ‘Hurt’… It is a very accessible song in a way, which took the fans by total surprise. Could the song explain the above reference to Timberlake? A more sophisticated fanbase? yes, I remember the terrible David Lynch video, but this new tune is a new direction! ‘I have become something else’ sings Reznor during the song, err…May be he wants to join One Direction after all.